Forgotten in the Red Sands
by D1G1T4L darkness
Summary: Sasori died leaving a unrested spirit behind, hoping someone would remember him. He returns as a spirit to the Sand village feeling the darkness in his heart grow stronger and stronger. [Slight SakuxSaso] Oneshot, Sasori's death and aftermath


**Forgotten in the Red Sands**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

**One-shot Tribute to Akasuna no Sasori**

I could feel the gentle breeze across my lifeless body. My head drooped down and I could not see my grandmother's face anymore. The swords had pierced my chakra encrusted heart with no emotion and no surprise. My blood red hair had fell before my tired and exhausted eyes and I noticed the pain and suffering my own two hands have caused. My grandmother and the pink haired brat had smiled in victory as I fell down onto the harsh dark ground. I couldn't feel myself anymore. My emotions were one with my body, lifeless and dead.

"Amazing, Chiyo-sama," the girl whispered.

My hands would not move, although I had forced them to do so. I wanted to show her that I didn't fall as I had. I had wanted to die and horribly at that. My heart had grown dark and I had no emotions, although she had thought of me too easily. That girl… Sakura. My vision had started to blur and I didn't want to hold onto life forever. The swift wind, howled once more and I lost myself in eternal darkness. I wasn't afraid of darkness…for I had grown up in darkness. Ever since my parents had died…

**-Flashback-**

I was young, I stepped into a building of sand and armor in the Village. It was my home. The walls were still crackled with the same dark orange I had once known. My Akatsuki cloak I had wore made me feel safe. My red hair flung across my forehead as I walked inside. I twisted the doorknob and opened the world of the past that I had once known. I saw my younger self staring at the walls. I found my solitude and loneliness there. It was the only comfort that I have known.

"Sasori-chan, we'll be back soon," the woman in dark hair smiled to her son.

"Okay…" the young Sasori said uncertainly.

"It's a war and people are drawn into it. But Sasori, we will not break the promise we gave you," my father said strongly.

The young me had felt the comfort in their words and believed in their promise to me. I had been a genius from the start and seeing my younger self had shown me a life that was once lived. I reached out and realized that I had puppet hands. I looked at my small…real…alive hands that used to move that were connected to his mind. My small soft hands looked beautiful compared to my blood stained puppet ones. I looked sadly at the promise that was broken… The promise that we would always be together…

"We won't leave you here…" my mother spoke towards me.

I stood by the door feeling the darkness and regret that had washed over me. I should have looked upon myself sooner…seen the faces that shaped who I am. My mother and father had broken their promise, and I had waited by each passing day for their arrival. I saw them… They walked through me and out of the door for the last time. The lied to me… They broke their promise…which had led me towards my misery, my doom, and my inevitable fate of dying slowly and painfully.

---

"Sasori-chan…" Grandma Chiyo had called towards the eight year old me…

"Yes?" I asked, staring at the walls.

My younger form was so innocent…so naïve… I wanted to wash away the horrible memories of growing up alone. Grandma Chiyo called me over towards her. My eight year old self waddled over there without a slight hint in the world about the dangers that lay ahead. I walked over there myself and reached out my mechanical hand. I wanted to touch my younger self… Feel his real hands…

"I'm proud of you, Sasori-chan," Chiyo said. "You've graduated top in your class and before everyone else with only your puppet manipulating jutsus. You've grown terribly since the war had started. Your mother and father would be so proud."

"When are they coming back?" I asked along with my younger self.

Chiyo sighed sadly and looked at the grandson she knew she was about to lose. The red haired boy stared at her expectantly and I closed my eyes for a moment realizing how she had tried so hard to save me… I opened my eyes and looked back upon the memory that had haunted me for years to come.

"I'm afraid…Sasori, they won't be coming back. I wasn't sure how to say it…but they were killed by the White Fang of Konoha. They wanted you to have something…"

Chiyo handed a small necklace with an hourglass filled with a dark, red sand. Sasori held it close to his heart and walked away. Chiyo did not know what would happen to him. She looked sadly at the grandson she once had. He was lost now. I looked upon my young self knowing that I would never be the same again. My grandmother left and I sat with my younger self staring at the dark orange wall. The sand crackled beneath my fists and I put the necklace around myself.

"As advisors of the sand, they brought back your mother and father's bodies…but-"

I reached into my Akatsuki cloak and pulled out the same necklace. It was smashed when I had died. The sand was all gone and I was no longer among the living. I was Akasuna no Sasori and I had died… I had died… The words hit my like a cold splash of drenching water. I looked at my younger self. I sat there in the same position for many days. Silent tears had streamed down my cheek every night when no one could see me. I wanted to leave this memory… It had pained my very soul…

"Sasori?"

Chiyo would call me every night. I would not answer her.

"Sasori?"

My friends would call me back from the Academy… It hurt too much to answer.

"Sasori?"

My teachers from the Academy were worried… No one had been so isolated before…

"Sasori?"

I soon fell into darkness knowing even the Kazekage couldn't help me.

"Akasuna no Sasori."

I first gained my name as I grew ten years old, relying on the red sand that was incarnated into my flesh and bone. My puppets grew with me, fighting my battles as well.

"Akasuna no Sasori…"

I battled through the darkness and loneliness only to find more regret and sadness. I had created a new type of dangerous weapon. The type of puppet that went against all other dark titles; a human puppet. I was finally able to train myself to rely on no one and allowed no one to rely on me.

"Akasuna no Sasori?"

I was feared and my power was reaching beyond a human's limits. My mind grew twisted, engulfed by darkness. I waited and made myself into a human puppet. Now my life was unfettered by a mortal lifespan… I had weapons that would destroy someone in an instant. I had too much power to control.

"Akasuna no Sasori!"

The darkness had come full circle and I was now feared amongst the S-ranked criminals. I escaped my home village only to vow to destroy it later. I joined the Akatsuki, where I was still dying. I grew one with my puppets and no one would be spared. I left a country begging on its knees, praying for mercy. I shall not lend that to them. Blood and darkness remained.

**-End Flashback-**

"No, the person who should have been defeated…was me," Chiyo said with kind words. "Sasori saw my last attack and yet he somehow couldn't avoid it. It gave him a small opening…"

I could still hear her voice. I wanted to say something to her before I died… I already thought I was in hell. What more was there to stoop down towards? Sakura thought she had truly defeated me…Deidara wouldn't miss my absence, he was even poking at my death. I closed my exhausted eyes for the final time…waiting for something to happen. Something did…and it was hours later… My Akatsuki ring had been taken off.

---

I didn't feel like I had anything anymore. I was just a free flowing spirit wandering the earth alone and my spirit would never be at rest. My ring was taken off by the damned Zetsu and his two personalities. I had no will anymore as I parted from my lifeless puppet body and wandered the earth. I thought about all the puppets scattered in pieces now that I was no longer there to control them. The lives I have destroyed and the people that I have killed for my own collection. Was it all worth it?

"Chiyo!" a voice called.

I wandered over towards the field of grasses and life. I tried to grasp the earth beneath me, although I was just…there. Everyone was holding a quiet moment for my grandma. I had no trouble finding out that they hadn't held one for me. I was a criminal and a dangerous one the world was glad to get rid of. There was only one request I had. Just one. I wished terribly for it to come true.

I, Akasuna no Sasori, would never be saying this…but it was my heart's true intent. I wanted…someone to miss me while I was gone… For a week…for a day…even for a minute. But no one will…I knew that answer already.

"Sasori?" a warm voice whispered towards me.

"Grandma Chiyo?" I asked in amazement.

The old woman smiled at me warmly and she had led a good life, filled with hardship and grief, but she was able to do the right thing in the end. If my life were as pure and as good as hers, I would have felt much better. But still, we both held a silent moment staring at the Sand people that had missed my grandmother so much. She clasped her hands over mine and I looked back at her.

"Sasori, someone will grant your wish… Someone will…" she whispered softly.

I looked back at her and she faded away slowly into thin air. Her heart was so pure…so forgiving, and so unlike mine. I looked sadly back as time had passed and everyone began to leave…helping the Godaime Kazekage back to his feet and to the village. I followed them slowly, as time turned into hours, and hours into days.

---

The Konoha team was about to depart and looking at them had made me depressed and saddened to my very own cold heart. The girl…that Sakura girl had stared long and hard Grandma Chiyo's grave. I looked as my dark faded eyes could see and I was exhausted. I looked tiredly and sadly as Sakura had small droplets of tears in her eyes. They were for Chiyo…and no tears would be shed on me. I knew this reality, despite my wish and dream for it not to be that way.

_Thank you Chiyo-sama…_ the girl mouthed.

The shards hanging by a thin thread clung around my neck was full of melancholy. My parents had given me the greatest gift of all and I had destroyed everything using it. I looked and it was completely empty…besides one tiny grain of red sand. I held the small grain within my palm. I gently lay it in the ground and a gust of wind blew it away. I was forgotten… I was forgotten forever and for years to come.

I wanted someone to remember me…Just someone to see the genius puppets I created. I wanted people to miss my presence, but more to appreciate the art that I have created using my puppets and eternity.

My spirit wants to be lain at rest, but unfortunately, I can never see Grandma Chiyo again…or my mother and father if no one would grant my only eternal wish. I would never be at peace until this mission is complete. I stayed at the same spot watching if anyone would make me a grave or give me a flower. No one did… No one will. But still, I lay at that same spot until someone will. It may be hundreds of years, thousands of years, but I still cannot…go without being remembered by someone for anything.

----------

A young girl stepped out into the sands, behind the Sand Village and quietly put an engraved white stick into the ground. She silently said a prayer and looked over her shoulder. She felt as if someone was smiling down upon her. She had beautiful and radiant cherry blossom hair and jade green eyes. She was Haruno Sakura and she had been longing to do this for months. She knew that it would be painful not being needed by anyone.

A red haired boy was standing behind her, transparent, and not seen by anyone. He put his hand on her shoulder and Sakura felt a warmth growing over her from that very spot. Even though Sasori had caused so much trouble, she knew that he was a human life and that he had feelings though he refused to admit them. Sasori's soul could now be laid at rest and his spirit would be free.

"I'm going to make sure everyone can see what a wonderful person you are, Sasori. You couldn't fight the darkness and you didn't win against your loneliness, but you were a true shinobi from the moment you were born until your death. I don't even know if your grandmother has a heart as gentle as yours," Sakura echoed.

_Thank you Sakura… Sasori whispered._

"I know people who really miss you Sasori. Even though we were enemies at the time we fought, I knew that you were broken deep within yourself. You didn't even try to avoid death at the last moment and you know that…There are people graduating from the Sand's Academy who heard of your legend here Sasori. They want to carry on your legacy without darkness and clouds fogging their vision. No one hates you Sasori…everyone now understands your pain and anguish," Sakura said as she had silent tears stream down her cheeks.

Sasori looked in the village behind him and a young boy who looked remarkably like Sasori himself, was learning how to attach chakra strings. The young boy turned around feeling as if a genius presence was guiding and helping him. Sasori held his hands in the right position and helped the young boy attach the chakra strings.

"Look everybody! Kazu is already able to attach chakra strings!" a girl shouted.

"Wow! Amazing! You are just like Akasuna no Sasori!" shouted another boy.

Sasori breathed a breath of air and looked happily at the next generation benefiting off of his teachings. He wasn't a bad person in the end, but a good hearted one who just could not find the right path until it was too late. He guided that boy, and that boy would soon have the next skills of a master and genius puppeteer.

Sasori looked back as if it were yesterday and looked forward as if it were tomorrow. There was something within his life that was destined to be remembered and never forgotten. He raised his hands up and felt the sunrays for the first time.

He looked back at his past and it was a dark and shadowy pit of hell and looked at his future and it was a bright array of light. He was somewhere caught between and helped himself fly… He flew as high as the tiny grain of red sand had flown… Up with the clouds and the light above.

---------

_I faded away slowly like how my grandmother had so many years ago. I felt as if I should watch over this boy… He knew that he had my guidance. My eyes healed and I could see clearly through everything. I fought through the darkness now and am fading slowly into a brighter place where I can hopefully…maybe just once more…see my mother and father… Chiyo too. _

_Now maybe we can become a family again._

**The End.**

**Author's Note: **Sasori is a really cool character and I was so sad when he had died. I knew that he was hiding more than he was saying and this is my version of him saying it. Yeah, and I was rereading my own story and wanting him to have his wish granted. Because no one would seem to have wanted to remember him, I knew it would be just too sad. Everyone needs to be missed or wanted…and definitely, someone should be upset when someone dies.

Sasori with no living family and nothing else, should be noticed, and someone should know that he's really gone.

This is in memory of him and anyone else who died unknown and alone. They deserve more and they deserve someone who is deeply saddened by their absence.

From a Narutarded Writer,

- D1G1T4Ldarkness


End file.
